The present invention relates to a carrier for holding a small article on a person's belt and, in particular, relates to a sheath or similar carrier for a useful article such as a folded multipurpose tool.
Various sheaths, pouches, holsters and other types of carriers are well-known for keeping pagers, wireless telephones, knives, multipurpose tools and other small articles on a person's belt where they are readily available. Some such useful articles are considered in some places to be status symbols when carried in a visible location, and a pleasing appearance of both the article being carried and of the carrier used to hold the article can be a factor in determining which such tool or other useful article is purchased instead of another.
Primarily, however, such sheaths and other carriers are intended to carry a tool or other useful article securely in a familiar location on one's person, where the article is easily and quickly available for use, and where the article can be replaced easily enough that one is not tempted to set it down and thus risk leaving it behind and losing it.
While many previously available carriers and sheaths have included permanent belt loops, such loops require a belt to be unfastened to mount a carrier onto the belt. Some carriers include clips or arms that can be slipped over the top of a person's belt or be removed from the belt while it is being worn. Such clips, however, have not been able to fasten a carrier to a belt as securely as is desired, particularly when a carrier is to be used to carry an expensive article or one which might be damaged if it falls.
Various sheaths for articles such as pagers or wireless telephones are not capable of securely and dependably holding heavier articles securely without the use of latches or flaps that must be unfastened and re-fastened in order to use and replace the article being carried and such an additional step required for use of such carriers may be enough to tempt a person using such a carrier to lay down an expensive tool or other article, rather than immediately replacing it into the carrier, with the result that the tool or other article is eventually left behind and lost.
Many sheaths, although secure, strong, easily used and good looking, such as some pouches or sheaths made of leather, are undesirably costly to produce and do not long maintain their good appearance in everyday use.
What is needed, then, is a carrier for attachment to a person's clothing for securely holding a useful article such as a small tool, from which such an article can easily be removed when it is needed, and into which such a tool or other article can easily be replaced. Preferably, the useful article should be clearly visible when held in such a carrier, and the carrier should be durable and attractive in appearance, yet inexpensive to manufacture.